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| Wednesday June 22, 2011 | ||
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WITH sh100 as capital, Edward Kiiza, a resident of Buswekera village in Hoima district was determined to become a millionaire at 10 years, in 1975. The P.3 pupil had gotten the idea of selling jack fruit (ffene) when he noticed fellow pupils sneaking out of school to buy it at the nearby trading centre. He started with one jack fruit which he bought at sh50 and a few days later, his capital had reached sh200. In just a week, his capital had grown to sh1000. He would cut the fruit into pieces and sell to fellow pupils during lunch time. “Old people and children enjoyed the fruits so much that sometimes, I would get double the money I used to buy one jack fruit,” he says. Then in the same week, while sitting at his father’s bar at Buswekera trading centre, another idea came to him. The huge number of patrons at the bar prompted Kiiza to start roasting chicken at the bar, something no one had ever done in the area. He bought his first chicken at sh150 and just like the jackfruit business, this one turned out to be extremely lucrative, evidenced by how fast his capital expanded. “I bought my second chicken at sh200. I used to buy about three chickens,” Kiiza recalls. He also didn’t give up selling jack fruits at school until he dropped out two years later. “I didn’t go far in education. I stopped in P.5 even though I had been promoted to P.6,” Kiiza says adding that “education didn’t seem to be important then.” Kiiza used to keep his money in a wooden safe. After leaving school, he broke the box and he had saved sh10,000. He then bought a piglet at sh300 and abandoned the jack fruit and chicken-roasting businesses to start fish vending. Two years later, the pig produced 12 piglets which he sold at sh300 each. The proceeds helped him boost his fish vending business. Kiiza recalls how he used to ride on a bicycle from Buswekera to Lake Albert in Buseruka sub county to buy from fish mongers. He would then comb various fishing villages on foot in search of fish. “I used to leave my bicycle at Buseruka trading centre, about 10km from the landing sites, because the roads to the lake were bad. I carried my boxes of fish on the head to my bicycle and rode back to the village,” says Kiiza. He made sure he always had between 300-400 fish of various types in his box before heading back home. “I bought the fish from various fishermen at different prices. Sometimes I would buy a fish at sh100 or even more,” Kiiza says, and adds that it was a tough experience but his dream of becoming a millionaire kept him going. Then famine hit Buswekera and Kiiza took it as an opportunity to make money from the hungry residents. He started riding his bicycle to Muhooro township in Kibaale district to buy dried cassava from farmers to sell it to the people in his village. “I also made some money from this business and it is at this time that I met my wife, Joan,” Kiiza says. In a period of two years, his capital had accumulated to sh30,000. He then started buying cows and selling meat in nearby markets. Like his other ventures, this one was also quite challenging, he says. “It was difficult to move cows at that time because we didn’t have money to hire cars and the roads were terrible.” “We would set out on foot with our cows from Bugungu in Kigorobya sub-county at 3:00pm and arrive in Buswekera the following morning,” he says. Luckily for Kiiza, his capital grew to sh80, 000 in two years and in 1984, he opened up a shop in Buswekera. He was, however, forced to abandon it in 1986 at the peak of the war. “I dug a pit in my house and buried my money and merchandise as I prepared to flee the village. My wife and I ran to Kibanjwa village in Buseruka where we stayed with other people until the government changed,” he says. After the war, he returned to Buswekera and harvested the millet and maize which he had planted before the rebellion intensified. He also found his money safely waiting for him in the pit he had dug in his house. He sold off all the merchandise he had hidden and then combined the money with the proceeds from the sale of millet and maize and started buying coffee from farmers. “I kept the coffee and only sold it when the government had stabilised. I sold three lorries of coffee to Bunyoro growers at sh1.6m,” he said. Kiiza and his wife then set up another shop at Hoima bus park in 1986. It’s at this stage that he made his first trip to Kampala to buy merchandise for his shop. “We saved all our money. We packed our food from home so that we could not spend money on food in hotels while in town,” he says. It was 1989 and his shop had grown into a wholesale shop. Kiiza started buying merchandise from factories in Kampala, selling to retailers back home. “I started to travel to Kampala three times a week and became an agent of Mukwano enterprises and other big companies that offered me goods on credit,” he says. In 2000, he started constructing Riviera Hotel in Hoima town and launched it in 2002. The 70-bed hotel on Hoima-Kampala road also has three conference rooms and is one of the biggest hotels in Bunyoro. In 2003, Kiiza set up Liberty Broadcasting Services, a radio station, in Hoima. This was followed by Kiboga Broadcasting Services in 2006. In the same year, Kiiza closed his wholesale shop at Hoima bus park after selling off the stock. Using the proceeds and profits from all other ventures, he set up Bunyoro Television in Hoima town in 2008. He now employs 110 people in his businesses and is now setting up a plant that will start packing water next year at Kiryabana cell in Mparo division, Hoima municipality. It will employ more than 50 people in the beginning. “I set up these businesses not for the sake of making money only but to create employment,” he says. Due to Kiiza’s humble beginnings, people in Hoima don’t believe the businesses belong to him. They claim that the projects belong to big shots in Government who are hiding behind him. “They belong to me, my wife and children. All of them began with the capital I got from selling jack fruits. When you are hardworking and focused you can not go wrong,” Kiiza says adding that “the problem is that people despise jobs.” Challenges The main challenges to his businesses are frequent load shedding and high taxes imposed on his ventures. “Sometimes we go for weeks without power and my businesses have to keep running on electricity for me to remain in business. We use power generators but they are expensive,” Kiiza says. “Can you imagine I need sh74m to extend power to the water plant,” says Kiiza. He says if the Government could offer tax incentives and exemptions to locals as it does to foreign investors, their businesses would thrive more. “I was in China recently and wanted to buy machines to crush stones used in construction and tarmacking roads but we don’t have enough power to run them, and the taxes are also high,” says Kiiza. FACT FILE | |||||||||
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